Chapter 35
Chapter Thirty-Five
Luca’s POV
Yet another dead end.
Another lying parasite feeding off my desperation. This one had spun a long, elaborate story about seeing Ollie at a park with “a group of men”, even throwing in fake details to make himself sound credible.
I was inches from breaking his nose—just so he’d remember the exact moment he decided to waste my time—when Charles and the intel team stepped between us.
Twenty-four hours.
Twenty-four fucking hours, and no one knew a single thing that could lead me to my son.
The ache in my chest was foreign—like someone had reached in, ripped my heart out, and shredded it into ribbons.
I’d only just learned Ollie was mine. Two weeks.
That’s all I’d had. Two weeks to imagine the years I’d missed, to promise myself I’d make every birthday, every school game, every scraped knee count from now on.
And now, he was…gone.
In less than fifteen days, someone had dared to take him from me.
Rage was the only thing keeping me standing.
I couldn’t afford despair. Couldn’t allow the “what ifs” to crawl into my head.
I needed my mind sharp, my will sharper.
Whoever had taken Ollie wasn’t just targeting a child—they were targeting me.
Cassius? No. I’d crossed him off long ago. The coward had vanished from Manhattan after our last encounter.
My father? I wouldn’t put it past him. He’d sworn he knew nothing about Ollie, claimed he didn’t even know Leila had a child. I didn’t believe him. I never would. And until I had proof otherwise, I was keeping eyes on him around the clock.
Victor? He was just as likely. Maybe he didn’t know for certain Ollie was mine, but an obsession like his doesn’t need proof—it only needs a reason. Ollie looks like me. Anyone with eyes could connect the dots.
Half of the suspects circling this in my mind were my own blood. That was the part that burned.
Charles walked into the office where the rest of the intelligence team had been holed up for the last twenty-four hours.
“I’ve doubled security at your mother’s hotel,” Charles informed me.
I’d asked him to put a security detail on my mother after she divulged the truth about my father.
I wouldn’t trust him not to try and snuff her out—she was a witness to the crimes he committed.
And I’d doubled that security since Ollie’s disappearance.
“Any update?” I asked, desperation clinging to my words.
“Your father seems to be going about his normal daily tasks. He’s home right now. Nothing shady.”
“And Victor?”
He pursed his lips. “Now that’s someone I haven’t been able to pin down. Last time he was seen was at seven last night, leaving his apartment building. He hasn’t been home since.”
My forehead creased, suspicion building in me. “Where the hell is he?”
“No idea,” Charles replied. “His phone is switched off, and the last ping traced it back to his house. Which means he’s out without his phone.”
“He wouldn’t just go out without his phone,” I said.
“Exactly.”
Just then, my phone began to ring—an unknown caller.
“Stay on this, Charles. Do not stop until you figure out where the hell my brother went.”
“Got it.”
I stepped out onto the veranda and hit the answer button.
“Hello, brother,” Victor’s voice drawled through the receiver, dripping smugness and menace.
Rage shot through me, hot and fast, but I forced my mind to stay cold. I hit mute, flicked my fingers toward Charles, and ordered in a low tone, “Trace it. Now.” I unmuted the call.
“I imagine you’re going crazy right now, wondering where your son and Mate are?”
My spine locked. Leila? I’d only just spoken to her forty minutes ago, right before I questioned that fraud of an informant. And she’d been home. Was he bluffing?
I had Charles quickly dial Leila’s phone, and it was switched off. A cold rush shot through my veins, tightening my chest until I could barely breathe.
“Victor,” I snarled, my voice low and dangerous, “if you’ve laid so much as a finger on her—”
“Oh, spare me the threats, brother. You’re in no position for them…not when I have your son and your Mate.”
My pulse roared in my ears.
“If you touch them,” The growl in my throat nearly drowned out the words, “I will burn down every safehouse you’ve ever hidden in, scatter your ashes, and make sure history forgets you ever existed.”
He tsked, mocking. “What did I just say about threats?”
A gunshot cracked through the line. My blood iced over. Then came it—the terrified screams of Ollie and Leila.
“What do you want?” I snarled.
“Simple,” he chuckled. “Sign over the position of CEO of Vaughn Industries to me. And call a press conference, announce you’re stepping down as Alpha of Manhattan Pack…and naming me as your successor.”
“I don’t have that kind of power. The council decides.”
“Oh, but you do. And you’ll use it…or the next sound you hear will be your son begging while I cut off his fingers.”
“I swear to God, I will bury you alive, Victor. You’ll regret the day you were brought onto this earth.”
He laughed, the sound bitter and taunting. “Thirty minutes, brother.” Then the line went dead.
I turned to Charles. “Got a location?”
He shook his head. “Burner phone.”
“Shit!” My fists slammed into the wall, leaving a deep crater.
“What’s the plan?” Charles asked. “He sounded dead serious.”
“I’m not handing over my company. Or this pack. They’ve survived my father’s corruption, and Victor will burn them to the ground.”
“But if you don’t—”
“There’s no room for ifs right now, Charles. We find Victor first.”
“That could take time.”
“Not if I call the right person.”
Grant picked up on the first ring. I dumped every detail on him. Minutes later, he called back. “Dock Street. Can’t pin the exact pier.”
“I’ll take it from here.”
I snatched my keys. “Get ten of our best security officers out on Dock Street right now,” I ordered Charles. “They wait for my signal. If they jump early, they’re done.”
“Got it.”
I climbed into my car and kicked the engine to a start. My foot hit the gas, and I drove like a lunatic toward Dock Street. Thirty minutes. I had thirty minutes to save Ollie and Leila.
And to end my brother.
When I arrived at Dock Street, it didn’t take long to figure out where Ollie and Leila were being held. Their scent lingered in the air—sharp with fear and terror. Rage surged through me at the thought that Victor had dared to keep them like this, drowning in fear.
I stormed Pier Forty-Seven and found them strapped to chairs with rope. Ollie’s face was covered with a cloth, shielding him from seeing me, but Leila’s eyes flew wide the moment she did. She gasped, her expression tight with wariness.
“He has a gun, Luca!” she warned as I advanced.
Victor’s dry, sinister chuckle filled the space, stopping me cold.
“You’re predictable, brother,” he said, stepping into the light. That cruel smile on his face made the blood roar in my ears. “I expected you to find me. I knew you’d come. You always do. Which is why I came prepared.”
From a nearby table, he grabbed a brown folder and pen, tossing them toward me with a flick of his wrist. He motioned with the pistol in his other hand. “That’s the contract. Sign Vaughn Industries over to me, or—” he shifted the barrel toward Ollie, and my heart nearly stopped.
Leila’s sharp gasp echoed, tears spilling freely down her cheeks.
“Please, Victor, let him go,” she pleaded, her voice cracking with desperation. “He has nothing to do with this.”
Victor ignored her. His gun didn’t waver.
“Sign it, brother. Surely you care about your son more than you care about your empire.” He smirked, then moved closer to Leila, pressing the barrel against the back of her head. Her breath hitched, and my claws threatened to tear free.
“Or…” His tone dripped with mock delight. “Would you rather watch her go instead?” His eyes glinted, as though the thought amused him more than anything. “Tell me, Luca—if you had to choose, who would it be? Your darling Mate…or your own blood?”
Every muscle in my body coiled, ready to strike. My mind raced, calculating the distance, the angle, the risk. If I lunged, if I misjudged even slightly, he could fire—one twitch, and I’d lose them both.
My wolf begged to let him take over, to let him tear Victor apart, but I couldn’t afford recklessness. Not when their lives hung on the pull of a trigger.
“Why are you doing this, Victor?” I ground out, my jaw tight. “What do Leila and Ollie have to do with our own shit?”
“Because I’m tired of watching you take everything I ever wanted!
” he yelled, veins bulging against his skin, eyes wild.
“I’m tired of being the shadow while you get to be the perfect son.
Our mother came back after twenty-one years, and who did she run to first?
” He jabbed the gun toward me, shaking with fury.
“You, Luca. Always you. It’s always going to be you. And I’m done.”
“We can talk about this,” I said, forcing calm into my voice as I edged a step forward. “Tell me what you want. Equal shares in Vaughn Industries? Done. I can make you second-in-command as Alpha—”
Victor’s laugh split the air, sharp and bitter. “You don’t get it, do you? I’m the firstborn. You should be bowing to me.”
“Fine!” My patience snapped. “Forty-nine, fifty-one. You can have the larger share of Vaughn Industries. I don’t care about the damn numbers. Just let them go. This is between us.”
But Victor only shook his head, pacing around Leila and Ollie like a predator savoring his kill. “And Leila? Who gets her?”
My gaze flicked to her, and the sight almost undid me. Her cheeks were wet, her eyes wide with terror. I clenched my fists, swallowing the urge to rip Victor apart where he stood.
“She isn’t a toy, Victor!” My voice thundered across the space. “She can choose whoever she wants to be with.”
“Oh, bullshit!” His voice cracked with venom. His eyes were hollow now, filled only with hate. He pointed to the folder lying on the floor. “Sign the damn contract.”
Dropping to one knee, I tore the folder open, scrawling my name across the lines without even reading. My only thought was Leila and Ollie.
“Done,” I spat, tossing the pen aside. “Now let them go.”
Victor gestured to one of his men, who brought him the signed pages. His lips twisted into a sinister grin as he slid the papers into a bag. “Release them.”
My gut tightened. Something felt off. Half an hour ago, he’d demanded both the company and my title as Alpha. And now—just the company? No. Something was wrong.
I glanced down at my wristwatch, just briefly. Charles and my men would be in position by now. All I needed was Leila and Ollie in my arms before I gave the signal.
The guards released Ollie first. The moment his blindfold was taken off, his eyes locked on mine, and he ran straight into my arms.
“It’s okay, Ollie,” I whispered fiercely, clutching him against my chest. “I’ve got you. I’m here.”
I kept my eyes trained on Leila as the guard loosened her restraints. The second she was free, she took a step toward me—only for Victor to cock the gun and aim it directly at her.
The room froze.
“What the hell are you doing?” My voice tore out of me like a growl. “I gave you what you wanted. Let her go!”
“That’s the thing, brother,” Victor hissed, his hand steady on the trigger. “I can’t. I can’t let you have her. Because she’ll never choose me. It’ll always be you. And I won’t live with that. Not when she should’ve been mine to begin with.”
“Victor.” My voice dropped, low and dangerous.
He bared his teeth in a twisted smile. “At least when you wake up every morning without your precious Mate beside you, you’ll think of me. You’ll remember that I took this one thing from you.”
That was it. What happened next was a blur of instinct and raw desperation. Victor pulled the trigger. The crack of the gunshot split the air, and as fast as my legs could carry me, I lunged toward Leila. I shoved her out of the way, but I wasn’t fast enough.
The bullet tore into me, searing pain exploding through my chest as it knocked me backward onto the ground.
It was fine. It had to be fine. I would heal. I always healed. That was the difference between me and Leila—she wasn’t a full shifter, her healing was suppressed. Better me than her.
“It’s okay,” I rasped, forcing my voice steady for her sake as she scrambled to my side, clutching my hand with trembling fingers. “It’s okay, it’s just—”
But then I looked down. My white shirt was already soaked crimson, the wound gaping and burning like fire beneath my skin. And there was no pull of flesh knitting back together. No spark of healing. Nothing.
A cold dread sank into me.
“Luca,” Leila’s voice cracked, her eyes wild with panic as she pressed down on my chest, trying to stop the bleeding. “W–why aren’t you healing?”
Her words echoed what I already knew. There was only one thing that could stop the healing of a wolf shifter.
Silver. The realization hit me like a second bullet. Victor hadn’t just shot me with an ordinary bullet. It was silver.
I opened my mouth to reassure her, but no words came. My strength was draining too fast, every heartbeat pushing the toxic metal deeper through my veins. My vision blurred, the edges darkening.
The last thing I heard before everything went black was Leila’s voice—desperate, broken, begging me to stay awake—as the sound of boots thundered and my men stormed into the space.